


All at Once

by sourwulfur



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Derek returns, Gen, M/M, Okay is a thing apparently, Post-3A, Pre-Slash, pre-3b
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 10:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1684637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourwulfur/pseuds/sourwulfur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It didn't dawn on him until he saw Stiles again. Then, it hit him all at once, in an almost painful rush of emotion. He had missed Stiles.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	All at Once

**Author's Note:**

> So, I started writing this before the start of 3B and I just finished it after finding it again. I had completely forgotten about it. It's fairly short and I'm not sure I liked the ending. I might revisit this universe with the ending of 3B now, show how things progressed.

It didn't dawn on him until he saw Stiles again. Then, it hit him all at once, in an almost painful rush of emotion. He had missed Stiles. He had missed the teen's laugh, the way the corner of his lips would twitch upward when he was amused by something, the way that he always seemed to be _right there_ even in situations when Derek expected him to run. Derek let out a heavy breath as he stood there watching Stiles talking with Scott and Isaac. None of them had noticed him yet, and Derek hoped to keep it that way.

 

Something seemed different about Stiles. He was tired, walked as though there was a weight on his shoulders. His skin was too pale, and he looked as though he'd not slept at all since Derek left. Scott, Derek realized after another moment, looked fairly similar to Stiles while Isaac just seemed worried. Even without _knowing_ , he knew something was wrong. It should have surprised him, but it didn't, that when he took a few steps forward, it was Stiles that looked his direction first. The teen's mouth dropped open slightly in surprise before Stiles said, “Derek.”

 

“What're you talking about, Stiles?” Scott asked, his brow furrowing as he turned to look where Stiles was. “Derek's not he- oh.”

 

Stiles seemed to struggle with something for a moment, before he let out a heavy exhale and dropped his backpack to the ground in order to all but run over to where Derek was. Scott did not know what to think when Stiles was suddenly hugging Derek, and the other man was hugging Stiles back, practically lifting him off of the ground. Since when did they do things like _that_? Scott looked over to Isaac, who did not seem confused by the action at all, which only added to Scott's confusion. He would ask later, though. When Derek finally let go of Stiles, the teen took a step back, only to punch Derek on the shoulder as he said, “Dick! You can't just _leave_ like that. I found out from Scott.”

 

“Sorry,” Derek stated with a slight shrug as he put his hands into his jacket pockets. “I wrote-”

 

“I know, I found it.” Stiles nodded a little, reaching up to run a hand through his already unruly hair. “That doesn't make it okay, though. I mean, I... we kind of need you here.”

 

“What's going on, Stiles?”

 

The teen let out a shaky breath, absentmindedly wetting his lips before nodding a little. “Yeah, yeah, I should fill you in. It's a long story, though.”

 

“I've got time.” Derek nodded a little and Stiles sighed softly, absently reaching out to run his fingers along Derek’s arm before turning back around to walk over and grab his backpack off the ground.

 

“I'll see you later,” Stiles told Scott before his best friend could even ask any questions. “I'm gonna go fill Derek in on what he's missed. Again.”

 

Stiles waved a little and turned to walk off once again before Scott could even find his voice. Once he did, he turned to Isaac and said, “Since when are they so comfortable around one another?”

 

Isaac’s brow lifted a little as he looked from where Stiles and Derek were walking toward Stiles' Jeep to Scott. “You're just now noticing?” he asked before nodding his head back toward the school in indication for Scott to walk with him. “Stiles was with us through most of the summer, helping us look for Erica and Boyd. He spent more time at the loft than his own place.”

 

“Why didn't he tell me?” Scott asked with a furrowed brow as they started into the building.

 

“He thought you were dealing with enough, didn't want to worry you until we _had_ to.” Isaac shrugged a little despite the annoyed look that Scott shot him. He still agreed with Stiles' decision. Besides, Scott was Stiles' best friend and what Stiles kept from Scott was Stiles' decision, not Isaac’s.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

It was dark in the loft when Stiles and Derek went inside. The first thing Derek noticed was that it had been completely fixed. The glass was all picked up and everything. If the pang in his chest was not there to remind him what had happened, he might have never known. “Why aren't you sleeping?” Derek asked Stiles as he shrugged off his leather jacket to drape over the back of one of the chairs.

 

“I am,” replied Stiles, though he sighed when Derek simply shot him a look in response. “Just not much or well. It's... well, the whole Nematon thing.” Derek arched a brow in question, but did not actually say anything, which made Stiles laugh and smile a little as he fell back onto the couch. “I missed you,” Stiles admitted instead of explaining farther on what he was talking about.

 

The expression on Derek’s face softened a little and he sighed as he walked over to the couch as well. “Me too.” He nodded slightly and squeezed Stiles' shoulder gently with one hand as he sat down, near enough that it would not seem like he was trying to put distance between them without it being too close. “What happened, Stiles?”

 

“Right. So, yeah. While you were off doing... something, I don't remember what was happening at the time, but, uh... Scott, Allison, and I kind of died for a bit.” Stiles quickly held both of his hands up when Derek’s eyes flashed blue as he turned to look at the teen completely. “We came back... obviously; but, uh, we sacrificed ourselves to find our parents so that Jennifer... Julia... whatever her name was could not hurt them. Beacon Hills is now some kind of actual beacon and, I dunno... I keep having these weird dreams or, uh... seeing things even when I’m not asleep.”

 

Derek nodded a little at the information, though he was not entirely sure what to _do_ with it. He hated that Stiles was dealing with any of that, but found that he was more worried about what the dreams were doing (such as Stiles not sleeping to the point it was starting to affect his appearance) than the actual dream itself. What made it even _worse_ was the fact that he had been completely unaware it was going on. Sure, he had needed the time to himself, to regroup after everything (but he had always planned on coming back). “You should have called,” Derek stated after a moment, breaking the silence that had come between them.

 

Stiles laughed, almost bitter sounding, as he ruffled his hair and sank down onto the couch more. “And said what? 'Things are shit here, Sourwolf, and I’d really like you to come home now, please'?” Stiles fidgeted in his seat, staring at his hands as he picked at a string on his hoodie while purposely ignoring the way his voice wavered at his last word.

 

“Yes.”

 

The teen's breath caught in his throat for a moment at the simple yet firm response from the man sitting next to him, and he glanced over at the man out of the corner of his eye. Stiles did not know _why_ it had that reaction; it was just a word. Of course, the teen also knew it was more than that. It was the implication that Derek would have dropped everything to come back if he had asked. That was... that was something bigger than Stiles really wanted to think too much on and he pushed it aside for the time being as he absentmindedly wet his lips. “Oh. Well, I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time. Not that there should be a next time. I can't help keep your ass alive if you're not here.”

 

Derek smirked a little as he watched Stiles and said, “S'that your way of asking me to stay?”

 

“No. I mean, uh... maybe?” Stiles laughed a little as he ran a hand through his hair again before letting his head fall backward to rest against the top of the couch. “Yeah. That's my way of asking you to stay. I want you to stay.”

 

There was silence in the loft, save for the sounds of the building and world around them, for a long few moments before Derek finally nodded. “Okay.”

 

“Just like that? 'Okay'?” Stiles' voice held every ounce of uncertainty that he felt as he looked over at Derek out of the corner of his eye yet again. It was easier than looking directly at Derek, and he could pretend that he was not completely transparent that way.

 

“Just like that.” Derek nodded a little, settling down even more on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

The teen laughed softly, a slight smile slowly making its way onto his features as he nodded and said, “Okay.”

 

Sometime after that, between catching Derek up on everything that had happened (from Peter being MIA to the whole Isaac/Allison/Scott thing) Stiles must have dosed off, because the next thing he knew, he was blinking his eyes open to sunlight filtering into the loft. He was no longer on the couch, either, but that took even longer for him to register. After he did, though, Stiles smiled a little and turned his face to hide it in the pillow beneath his head there on Derek’s bed. He continued to lay there, in the warmth beneath the blankets, for several minutes until he finally got up. There were extra clothes lain out and Stiles grabbed them off of the chair to thankfully change into before he went to look for Derek.

 

“We're getting you a new apartment,” Stiles stated as he walked into the kitchen, where Derek was drinking a glass of milk while scrolling through his phone. The werewolf simply raised his brow and glanced over at Stiles, who nodded resolutely as if that settled everything. Stiles did not think that Derek staying in that loft was a good idea. It was just... it was full of bad memories, and he did not need to be there.

 

Derek watched Stiles a moment longer before he nodded as well, and said, “Okay.”

 

Just like that. Nothing was fixed, and a part of Stiles was acutely aware that outside that loft, their problems still existed. But, in that moment, sitting at the table next to Derek with one foot nudging the other man's ankle while they discussed meaningless things, Stiles could not help but feel that everything was going to be okay.

 


End file.
